Part 2
Alexander stood up slowly, adjusting his jacket.
The silence in the room was heavier than it had ever been during our marriage.
He looked at Sofia, his eyes softening for only a fraction of a second.
Then he looked at me.
"She stays here," he said, his voice dropping to a low, commanding register.
"I am calling Dr. Mercer. He will come here directly to examine her and document everything."
I nodded, my hands still shaking as I held Sofia's cold fingers.
"What are you going to do, Alexander?" I whispered.
He didn't answer immediately.
He walked over to the window, looking out into the dark, quiet streets.
"Carmen thinks she is a powerful woman because she owns a few businesses in the city," he murmured.
"She thinks she can treat my daughter like a piece of property to be beaten into submission."
He turned back around, and the expression on his face made a chill run down my spine.
It was the face he wore when he was about to completely ruin a competitor in business.
Ruthless.
Calm.
Calculated.
"She wants Sofia's condo because her own empire is built on a foundation of sand," Alexander continued.
"I've been watching her family's finances for months, Elena."
"I knew they were desperate, but I never imagined they would resort to this."
Sofia shifted on the couch, letting out a weak groan.
"Dad..." she breathed, her eyes barely open. "Javier... he knew. He let them do it."
Alexander walked back to the couch and knelt down again.
He took her hand with incredible gentleness.
"I know, sweetheart," he said softly. "And I promise you, by the time I am done, Javier will wish he had never been born."
Ten minutes later, Dr. Mercer arrived.
He was a trusted family friend and a top medical professional.
He spent an hour carefully treating Sofia’s wounds, taking high-resolution photographs of every single bruise.
He documented the swelling on her face.
The deep purple marks on her arms.
The torn wedding dress was placed into a secure bag to preserve any DNA evidence.
"This is horrific," Dr. Mercer said, shaking his head as he spoke to Alexander and me in the kitchen.
"The physical injuries will heal, but the psychological trauma is severe. She needs absolute rest."
"She will get it," Alexander said. "And she will get justice."
After the doctor left, Alexander sat at my dining table, opening his laptop.
He made three phone calls.
He didn't yell.
He didn't show anger.
He simply gave orders to people whose names I only recognized from the financial news.
"Freeze the construction permits for the Northside project," he told the first caller.
"Pull the funding for Carmen's retail expansion," he told the second.
"And find me every single piece of dirt on Javier’s investment firm by sunrise," he told the third.
I watched him work, realizing that the nightmare Sofia had just escaped was about to turn into a living hell for the people who hurt her.
May you like
The war hadn't just begun.
Alexander had already won it in his mind.
